Summer by the numbers

• 8889.2 kms (road trips)

• 9328 kms (flying)

• 42 nights away from home

• 13 first cousins (everyone on moms side, 2 on dads side)

• 3 Great Lakes: Huron, Superior, Ontario

• 9 hotel rooms: (Oceanview Rocky harbour, Hotel North St Anthony, Oceanview Rocky harbour, Sinbad’s Hotel and Suites Gander, The Capital St. John’s, Super 8 North Bay, Super 8 Thunder Bay, Motel 6 Sault Ste Marie)

• 7 Provinces: Ontario, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, Quebec, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba

• 10 nights in a sleeping bag

• 4 aunts and uncles

• 5 door knobs replaced

• 209,304,989 trees seen (estimate)

• 2 National parks (Gros Morne, Terra Nova)

• 3 Provincial parks (Buffalo Pound, Blue Lake, Sandbanks)

• 7 flights

• 2 compensation claims under the Canadian passenger bill of rights (+ 2 appeals, one successful, and one report to the Canadian Transport Authority)

Newfoundland

 In June, my Girl Guide travel group made it to Newfoundland! We'd been planning - and fundraising - for two years, and we were very excited to go!

We flew into Deer Lake, and visited Rocky Harbour (Gros Morne), St. Anthony, Gander, and St. John's.  

We went to L'Anse Aux Meadows, the Newfoundland Insectarium, and the Arches.

We saw Come From Away in Gander, toured a search and rescue facility, and went cod jigging. 

We met up with local Pathfinders, painted a picture of a puffin, and went to The Rooms.

It was a good trip.

Totality

 I've had the eclipse in my calendar for years. I bought glasses months ago. 

But I wasn't sure I was going until Monday morning - was it worth it if it's cloudy? Who would go with me? 

So on Monday morning, I booked the afternoon off. At noon, my niece and I got in the car and drove an hour south. The traffic was slow leaving Ottawa, but picked up as we got farther away.

We found a park on the St. Lawrence and settled in to watch. Somehow, we were surprised at how cold it got, but we stuck it out. 

When we hit totality, the crowd cheered. (I guess they were team moon?)

We got stuck in a parking lot on the way back, and decided to hang out in a grocery store until the traffic died down, so we didn't get home until 7 or so.

It was worth it. 

Quilting again

 

This winter, I've been quilting again. I started with an All About Me quilt for Miss M, who turned 10 in February. 

As part of looking for ideas for that one, I found a pattern I loved. I had barely finished the first quilt before I was working on the second one, which I finished last weekend. 

I took 1.5" strips of black and white, sewed them together, then cut strips that were 3"x18". I sewed a 1" black strip to both sides, then started building the colours on each side. I had a design laid out on graph paper so I knew which colours went where - dark blue, light blue, yellow, orange, pink, red, purple, green. When I had colours on each side of the black and white strip, I cut the squares to 12.5" square. 

It took 49 squares to make the quilt. The back is black. 

I still love it.